Robert Mowery Digital Thoughts

I had some time to reflect on observations and upclose interactions I have had the chance to experience over the last two months at both tech and non-tech conferences.
I decided to post this evening as I was pretty much blown away with @garyvee’s interactions at SXSW and his secret wine party.
First late me state the first time I personally met Gary was in FOWA Miami 2010 for about 2 min. I ran into him again the first day of the conference and chatted with him in Russian and he briefly remembered me from a few weeks earlier. Did I expect him to remember me? Hell no! He sees tons of people everyday and I can’t imagine his email and Twitter input streams. Yet, he was personable and sincere in talking even though he is a busy guy.
So a few friends (@venson, @gagnier, @lovisatalk) pand I ran into him last evening on our way from drinks and networking at the Driskill. He was headed up the street alone on his way to setup for his party. He stopped to chat with us (not because of me, but I think the Russian made him remeber me)and invited us to walk with him to the first party location. Just that invite made us feel important for a brief moment (well least me, I won’t speak for my friends). The only thing he asked is we not tweet the location. We got there and eventually helped a bit to get things setup. People in the place had spotted him and people there tweeter as within a few minutes the place started to fill up. Apparently in a 1/2 hour before Gary was supose to tweet the location there was already a 2 hour wait outside. Gary had already started serving wine to people. Yes he himself filling the glasses. When the place was too full he moved the party next door to the speak easy to allow more people to join the party. It was impressive to watch him engage with his fans and customers.
Did he need to do this? Probably not. He could have just hired a crew to handle the whole thing, but he knows his cutomers and fans and wants to know them and be part of it all. While he himself is important, he makes others (his fans and customers) feel just as important.
Is he alone in his customer service efforts? Probably a minority in my opinion. I can name about 10 people or orgs that do this. Another is @craignewmark who is just as amazing. I have had the chance to sit at conf next to him and watch him respond from his mobile device to tweets, etc from customers. He has also spoken a great deal on the subject and has very good advice. Again itis impressive that someone this busy and important handles customer service still for such a successful business.

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